Because of its sterilizing properties, ozone is today currently used in the field of debacterizing food products.
Current ozone-based debacterization devices usually present an enclosure in which the substance to be treated is arranged before ozone is introduced therein. The substance is then left to rest for up to several hours in that ozonated atmosphere before the substance is removed.
However, it turns out that merely immersing grains in an ozonated atmosphere does not always lead to sufficient debacterization.
In order to improve debacterization, devices have been developed in which the substance is put into contact with the ozone on different occasions.
The “Oxygreen” (registered trademark) device is known and described in the book “Ozone in Food Processing” written by Colm O'Donnell, Brijesh K. Tiwari, P. J. Cullen, and Rip G. Rice and published by John Wiley & Sons. The “Oxygreen” device makes it possible to treat grains for use in the production of flours. The grains are placed in an enclosure having an ozone treatment zone in a bottom portion and a wormscrew for raising the substance to be treated from said bottom portion to the top portion of the enclosure: the substance thus flows naturally from the top portion to the bottom portion in order to reach the ozone treatment zone before being raised again by the wormscrew until it reaches the top portion where it flows once more towards the bottom portion. As it passes through the bottom portion of the enclosure, the substance is thus subjected to the action of the ozone in a manner that is discontinuous but repeated.
Although such a method procures better debacterization of the substance, it is nevertheless relatively difficult to implement, with there being a risk in particular of the substance being oxidized by the ozone.